In recent years there has been more coverage of events known as conventions or “cons” across the world but for some it has been something they have known about for a while. A con is an event that allows fans to meet creators, experts, stars, and most importantly people who share similar interests. Cons also feature many people who participate in cosplay which is when a person dresses up as their favorite character. These characters range from anime, cartons, comic books, live-action movie and television series, video games, and books. But cosplaying is not just dressing up in a costume, most cosplayers invest time, money, and effort into creating or commissioning a head-to-toe transformation that is one-of-a-kind. Some of these creations include accessories, facial or body prosthetics, working electronics, or complex mechanical parts. The cosplayer is tapping into the character and often the role speaks to them personally according to psychologists who study cosplayers. Sometimes it’s about being someone completely different from themselves and sometimes it’s about relating to a character to cope with trauma. Many cosplayers feel like it’s a type of performance; it broadcasts a visible and public statement about the cosplayers’ allegiance to a character or fandom.

Of course, there are some misconceptions about cosplaying. Cosplayers have been stereotyped as the kind of people who are unemployed, socially inadequate who like to stay in their basement, according to Sally Whiting. Brittany Seitz has met people who think it’s a ploy to gain attention. What cosplayers would like people to know is that it’s a hobby that many use as a creative outlet. “I’ve met teachers, doctors, psychologists, bankers, and of course a lot of theater students and artists while they wore a cosplay they made themselves,” Sally told me. Brittany told me that dismissing cosplaying as attention seeking “dismisses the hours of creative work necessary to create a cosplay. When a person sees someone in a cosplay they only see the end result. Most don’t see any of the research necessary on the character, sourcing of materials, assembling, and the occasional mess up when you have to go back to the drawing board.” For many, cosplaying is just about a person wanting to make things and dress up in what they made for a weekend while being surrounded by people with similar interests. “There’s also the misconception that it’s just a hobby that wastes money but there are a lot of people out there who do cosplaying as their job and make a good living. Some cosplayers get paid to visit conventions or run cosplay contests because they’re that popular that it’s an advertising opportunity for a lot of brands and conventions. Some cosplay contests give out a lot of money if you win. And some cosplayers custom make cosplays and sell them,” Sally added.

Sally Whiting, Brittany Seitz, and Caitlin McGrew are three people I met who enjoy cosplaying. Each of them enjoy different aspects of cosplaying and cons and got involved in different ways. But at the end of the day, the three of them all enjoy spending a day or weekend surrounded by people with similar interests and showing off their new cosplay attire.

Sally Whiting

Sally Whiting

Sally first started cosplaying about 4 years ago when she was invited to a convention in Omaha, Anime Nebraskon, by a friend. She knew what cosplaying was before she attended from cosplay photographers on art sites and her friend who had been attending conventions for a while. She was interested but she didn’t have a reason to do it. “It’s like dressing up for Halloween, which is something I have always loved, but more intensive.” As a lot of cosplayers create their own props or sometimes even the costumes, it’s an artistic way to share one’s own perspective on a character. “Being an artist, it’s like taking up a new way to make art to get every detail the way you want it.” Sally tries to take one new cosplay every year, so she starts by thinking about what TV shows or books she’s been loving and what characters she likes. “It’s an added bonus if I find a character I like that also has a really unique look or complicated things I could try to make for it.” As Sally isn’t the best at sewing yet, she tries her best to find things that could work and pieces together something using existing pieces. “I would love to get to the point where I can draw a costume and take it from paper into a made piece myself.”

Sally’s favorite character to cosplay is one she has been cosplaying since the beginning. “It’s changed a bit every year. I cosplay a character named Cecil from the podcast show ‘Welcome to Night Vale.’ It’s fun because since the character is from a podcast there is no actual character design. You don’t know what Cecil looks like. So some artists online have done a lot of fan-art and come up with their own character design for Cecil and the creators of the podcast have said all of them could be accurate, there is no set look.” In the future, Sally wants to do a character with a lot of props. “Maybe some weapons that I can make out of foam. It would be really fun and a challenge to see how accurate and realistic I could get it.”

Picking a favorite memory for Sally is hard as she has a lot on the topic but she enjoys meeting new people. Nebkon, in Nebraska, is the one con Sally attends and every year there are about 4 to 5 thousand people in a convention center for three days straight. “Checking out each other’s cosplay, going to discussion panels, and basically geeking out about something that in most everyday life you don’t get the chance to talk about with people.” Many times there are newcomers, but a lot of the time there are the regulars from the previous years. “You might not know their name, or what they look like on a regular day, but when they’re at the con in a cosplay you know, they’re still your friend from the year before.” For Nebkon, Sally has met people who have flown from a coast to Nebraska just for the convention. “A friend I take with me now has a mission every year to take a photo with the same people she saw the year before. So far she has three years of photos with most of the same cosplayers.”

Brittany Seitz

Brittany Seitz

For Brittany Seitz, cosplaying wasn’t something new either. She spent some time online in high school on web forums like Gaia Online and 4chan so she had seen photos of people cosplaying, and had really enjoyed looking at people dressed as lolitas. She started cosplaying when her roommate at the time took her to the anime convention San Japan in San Antonio. Her roommate insisted she would have a better time if she dressed up, so she went as a Lolita.

Brittany likes to pick strong female characters or at least characters she considers strong. She sometimes sources ideas from her friends but always keeps in mind to be realistic when choosing a costume. She tries not to go outside of her skills until she feels confident that she can create it and it will look right. “I try to design my own costumes as much as possible as I find that to be the most rewarding of the process.”

Brittany has only been to three cons, San Japan twice and NebCon in Omaha. She hopes to cosplay She-Ra, Ruka, and Digimon characters in the future.

Caitlin McGrew

Caitlin, or Suzu as she is known in her cosplay group, has been cosplaying the longest. She started in 2004 and has been to 24 conventions with plans for another 3 or 4 this year alone. She originally became interested in cosplay as it was something she could do with her friends. She was in 8th grade when her friends invited her to a convention they were attending in Orlando, FL. Her friends

Caitlin McGrew

had gone the previous year and wanted to dress up this time. “Since I was really big into dance and performing, I was always willing to dress up in costumes.” She saved up, as she wasn’t good at sewing yet, to buy a custom-made costume.

“I ended up going as the leading female character from a video game that all my friends and I would constantly play. I was expecting there to be many girls dress as the same characters since it was a popular game, but I was actually 1 of 3 other girls. So I ended up getting a lot of attention from fans of the game.” Caitlin had a lot of fun at the convention and enjoyed taking pictures of other cosplayer, as well as getting her picture taken so she started to sew more. The more she sewed the more she wanted to make outfits of her favorite characters and bring them to life.

The process for Caitlin varies. Some characters take longer than others on deciding if she wants to cosplay them. There are some characters that have been on her list for years and she hasn’t gotten around to them. Once she has decided on the character, the process consists of finding a costume that will work with her budget and sewing skills. Caitlin uses an app called Cosplanner that helps organize and keep track of her budget and materials. She also has to get many shots of the costume at all angles as most characters have an already planned out costume. She screenshots episodes or finds 3D models of the character to help with this. Caitlin has a hard time picking a favorite character because many of the characters she has cosplayed are or were her favorite. But she has high hopes for her future cosplays. She has a few on a list and hopes that with the experience of making those costumes she’ll finally have the courage to make her dream cosplay come to life. “It has so much detail to it that I have never been able to get to it.”

Caitlin’s favorite memories come from the Omni Expo convention in Orlando, FL. It was the convention’s first year so it wasn’t very big and the hotel has other events going on at the same time. She was hanging out with a friend and his group who were cosplaying characters from the movie Frozen. They were doing a mini photoshoot and a parent from one of the other events came up to the group and asked if they could take a photo with the Frozen characters, thinking they were hired Disney characters. Caitlin quickly corrected her by telling it was part of a convention going on but everyone took it as a compliment to their hard work on making the costumes. Another memory from that same convention is when she was dressed as Sasha from Attack on Titan. The character eats a potato during a really awkward moment in one of the episodes and it’s a running joke with fans of the show. Caitlin made baked potatoes and brought them with her into the convention so she could be silly with them. She eventually found another Sasha and was able to give her a potato so the pair could be silly together in photos. “Most of the people that day knew me as ‘Potato Girl’ the character’s nickname, even the voice actors for the show that were invited called me it.”

Caitlin has also competed in a cosplay competition. This is where you’re judged on how well you created a costume for your character. The standard is to bring pictures of your construction progress and try to have a thorough explanation about the time spent making your costume, with the hard work put into the costume there is a good change winning an award or being recognized as a judges’ favorite. You also have time to meet and chat with others also participating so it’s a good way to make friends. In smaller conventions it’s a faster process but some conventions you can lose pretty much a whole day waiting around. Caitlin has done Page to the Stage Contest which is a part of Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA and actually got to meet Voltaire, a musician, and Elvira one year because they were the MC. Another year she was able to meet George Perez, a famous comic book artist, because he was a judge.

Going to conventions for some fans is a great way to meet new people, be creative, and also feel connected to the things they love. Conventions connect the creators to their fans in a fun atmosphere where people can feel free to express themselves freely. “Go to a convention. You don’t have to cosplay at your first con, you can go and talk to the cosplayers about how they made it. A cosplayer will always love to talk about their cosplay especially if they made it themselves,” Sally said. Sally also said that sometimes conventions will have discussion panels on cosplaying or different pieces of cosplaying such as makeup techniques or adding electrical elements to your cosplay. “Join a group and go to a meet up. I know I wouldn’t have actually started if I wasn’t taken to a con with my roommate. Try to surround yourself with people who do it and it will be so much easier to get out of your bubble,” Brittany said of getting started on cosplaying. Caitlin agreed, adding, “Do it! Honestly just try, even if it’s something really simple. It doesn’t matter if you buy your costume or make it from scratch, the whole point to cosplay is to have fun and cosplayers supporting others with their projects. And never be afraid to ask others questions about their costumes or inquire about advice that can help further your passion about wanting to cosplay. Like I said before the cosplay community is all about helping one another bringing our favorite characters to life.” So who knows, maybe cosplaying is your next new hobby.